The Man Who Oversaw Ferguson’s Racist Day-to-Day Operations Is Out After DOJ Report

A Ferguson firefighter surveys rubble at a strip mall that was set on fire.

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

The fallout from the Department of Justice report on Ferguson continues, as city manager John Shaw and the City Council agreed to a “mutual separation agreement” on Tuesday that finalizes Shaw’s departure from office. The 39-year-old oversaw the city’s operations that the DOJ report found to be deeply racist in both its policing and its administration, where the municipal court effectively operated as a moneymaking enterprise. On Monday, the Missouri state court took over the municipal court, installing a state appeals judge, in order to try to regain some credibility in the community and some semblance of justice. The city clerk was fired and two police officers resigned last week because of racist emails unearthed in the report.

The announcement of Shaw’s departure came during a City Council meeting on Tuesday. The DOJ report thrust the city’s chief executive into the spotlight after he managed to remain in the background during much of the tumult following the shooting death of Michael Brown. The report, however, brought to light grave injustices committed against black residents in Ferguson and fingered Shaw as mostly responsible for how Ferguson functioned, according to the New York Times.